Depravity Signaling (TM)
On any given day, the Second Coming of Trump is marked by words that should never be spoken. Either that, or they will be so shot through with lies, so perforated by stupidity, deceit, and vitriol that they leak human sewage all over the floor. You’ll need a white-suit-and-mask team to get it bagged as a biohazard.
Sometimes they will come from a flunky or an underling. J.D. Vance continues to insist, against the evidence, that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a monster, who represents an existential threat to life on Earth. He’s is alternately a terrorist, a gang member, and a space invader, based on the photoshopped images of his fingers which are said to exhibit the Mark of Cain or, worse, the iconography of M-13.
The fact, of course, is that they show tattoos, but with no connection to M-13. They are more likely drugstore henna washables, worn to parties by tweens in Los Angeles who are playing with the fashions of their older peers. This wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that the Garcia case is the one of the most consequential episodes in the 100-day history of Trumpismo Two. If the administration continues to ignore the Supreme Court, we might as well return our American passports and send our bald eagles to whoever will feed them.
Trump himself does even worse. Over the weekend, he was asked by a reporter whether a president is required to obey the Constitution. With ample warrant from Chief Justice Roberts (?!), Trump said that he didn’t really know, but that he follows the advice of the lawyers who work for him.
I don’t know about you, but this scares the hell out of me. Whatever a president may privately believe, he’s supposed to say that he would die for the Constitution, that it is the North Star of our system of checks and balances, that it is the foundation of American politics and culture. Without the Constituion, what do we have? Waffle fries from the counter cooks at Chik-fil-A?
Call me an innocent, but I am accustomed to the opposite, a show of piety, the sound of virtue signaling from even the most benighted politician. This is the opposite, an episode of Depravity Signaling (TM), a phrase that I have now trademarked and made my own. Let’s say it’s what happens when someone says the crazy part and wants you to know that he will say it again.
Why would anyone want to do that? I think it has to do with the prepwork of authoritarianism. Trump says everything to accustom us to the worst. When the worst doesn’t happen, it’s oddly reassuring, even if what happens is plenty bad. He told us, for example that he would seek a third term, that “my people” are looking at it and think that it’s possible, along with suspending birthright citizenship.
What he talked about this week was something else. He doesn’t want a third term after all. Being the president takes more time than it should from his heavy golf schedule at Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago. We are now supposed to be grateful for his helpful suggestions. It won’t be Trump. It will be Rubio or Vance, two names that should scare the hell out of all of us, but are somehow less alarming than Trump himself
Between us Americans, I don’t want any of this. And I refuse to be grateful to a Depravity Signaling beast. Eventually, we’re all going to be OK. but that will will require courage and vigilance. Let’s be careful to name the bad thing in front of us, and enforce the barriers and guard rails with our own power as citizens.